Spacewalking Cosmonauts Prime Space Station for New Laboratory

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Two cosmonauts took a spacewalk outside the International Space
Station Monday (June 24) to prepare the orbiting outpost for the
arrival of a new Russian laboratory later this year.

Clad in bulky Orlan spacesuits, cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and
Alexander Misurkin spent
more than six hours outside the space station to test
automated docking system cables and install equipment to aid the
arrival of the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory, a science
module slated to launch to the orbiting laboratory by the end of
2013. The spacewalk began at 9:32 a.m. EDT (1332 GMT).

Yurchikhin and Misurkin successfully tested the docking system
cables that will be used to help the new Multipurpose Laboratory
module dock itself at the station when it arrives. The
spacewalkers also installed cable clamps to hold the cables that
will route power and data from the U.S. segment of the space
station to the new laboratory module. [ See
Photos of the Russian Spacewalk ]

Still, it wasn't all work and no play for the hard-working
cosmonauts.

"Can you make the sun not shine so bright?" one of the
spacewalkers joked during the orbital work. "It's shining right
in my eyes."

Yurchikhin and Misurkin are part of the space station's
six-person Expedition 36 crew. Their crewmates — fellow
cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, NASA's Chris Cassidy and Karen Nyberg
and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano — remained
inside the International Space Station during the spacewalk.

Misurkin and Yurchikhin were lighthearted during the six hour and
34 minute excursion. They joked with Russian Mission Control
about being hungry, paused occasionally for a photo and commented
on the
beauty of the Earth from space.

"I guess we're flying over South America," one of the
spacewalkers said at one point. "Gorgeous."

Aside from the new module preparation work, the cosmonauts also
replaced a fluid control valve panel on the Zarya module,
installed a new science experiment on the exterior of the
orbiting laboratory, and retrieved two older experiments.

They installed tethers between handholds to be used by cosmonauts
and astronauts on future spacewalks, however they weren't able to
mount all of them in time. The remaining tethers will be
installed during a future spacewalk, NASA officials said.

Monday's spacewalk marked the sixth excursion for Yurchikhin, a
veteran cosmonaut making his fourth spaceflight. It was the first
for Misurkin. Before this spacewalk, Yurchikhin logged 31 hours
and 52 minutes of spacewalking time.

Six more spacewalks are planned for this year, four Russian and
two American. The U.S. spacewalks are scheduled to take place on
July 2 and 9.

Monday's excursion marked the 169th spacewalk for maintenance and
assembly performed on the $100 billion orbiting laboratory.
The International
Space Station was built by 15 countries represented by
five space agencies, and construction began in 1998. It has been
continuously staffed by rotating crews of astronauts since 2000.